Right now, the younger players are leading the way for the St. Louis Blues. Names like Jake Neighbours, Dylan Holloway, and Jimmy Snuggerud are among the leading producers for the team and are playing scorching hot.
The youth movement has carried St. Louis to a 2-2-0 record, an okay mark through the first 4 games. However, this includes a -5 goal differential on the season and a -10 goal differential at home. These are staggering numbers for a team with a .500 points record.
The ways that they are winning are close and scrappy, but the ways that they are losing are disheartening and hard to watch. The vibes around a .500 team seemingly could not be any lower, as they have had disappointments up and down the roster, namely with the established veterans of the team.
Where are the veterans?
The efforts from the established players on the roster has not been good enough. Players like Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Pavel Buchnevich are supposed to be leading this roster in terms of production, yet their efforts fall behind their younger peers.
For this team to operate at full capacity and play up to the level we know they're capable of, the established players on the roster have to pull their own weight and put up production to match. Robert Thomas in particular is supposed to be the engine of this roster that can spark the blues offensive machine, yet he only has 2 points in 4 games played.
If Thomas can't lead this team, there is no one equipped to fill his spot behind him. Thomas not being the player we expected of him would be disastrous for the outcome of this team, because there is no one who can do what he does on the roster.
Buchnevich was a player highlighted this offseason to have a bounce back season. So far, he has 3 points in 4 games which is not bad, but he has yet to score a goal. Buchnevich ought to be one of the primary goalscoring threats on this team and should be one of the primary sources of offensive output, but instead he's played only a secondary role as more of a decent middle-6 player rather than a top line winger.
And speaking of not putting up enough of a goal total, Jordan Kyrou has yet to score. Typically a hot start player, Kyrou is having one of the worst starts to a season of his entire career, sitting at 2 assists in 4 games. Kyrou was the leading goalscorer the last 3 seasons, and he is well behind the mark this year going goalless.
This team cannot perform to the heights of their potential without their big 3 showing up. So perhaps the rocky start to the season can be explained by this lack of production among the established veterans, and it will take efforts from these three as well as more names such as Brayden Schenn to take this team where they want to go.